Items Tagged With Regions

Hereford Cattle Graze at Big Sur, California
Michael Pollan delved into what organic certification has wrought for the original idealistic movement born in the 1970s in his book the Omnivores Dilemma. Organic is now corporate, because the rules of organic have been set, it can be systematized in ways that can compromise the original purpose of organic food. Yet Pollan could not begrudge the corporate organic producers because their practices where treating the earth better than their non-organic peers.  Organic farming in California can take two forms: small farms and mega farms like Earthbound Farms Organic where millions of pounds of lettuce are grown annually the same is true of meat and dairy production. I have seen both with my own eyes: I have traveled the coast and seen bucolic farms where Hereford graze with a full few of the Pacific ocean and I have also seen mega dairies in central California with large factory like barns set up in arid lots with no pasture to be seen. I have seen migrant workers and farm stands.  California really represents America's agricultural extremes.  It is not surprising that California has some of our biggest and profitable feed lots and is also host to America's first slow food festival. I think there are lessons to be learned from California’s organic movement and the success of its industrial organic producers: certification can sometimes hurt, not help, a movement.

Like the organic movement of the 1970s, grass-fed farming is a movement too. We all know that, we are part of it. As this movement becomes more popular and more people start to eat grass-fed meats, cheeses and eggs, the more need there will be for government regulation.  A lot of grass-fed producers are actively trying to define what grass-fed farming means. We can all agree that grass-fed means: an animal should only eat grass, even the USDA has said that meat labeled grass-fed must only have eaten grass after it was weaned but this might not be as clear as it should be.  We all want to purchase grass-fed meats because it is natural for cattle so they do not require antibiotics or hormones and yet these guidelines mean that a meat that is labeled grass-fed can be fed antibiotics.  The American Grass-fed Association thinks the label is too vague and has set up its own certification program to help protect the grass-fed producers who practice grass-fed farming free of antibiotics and hormones.

Most people who purchase grass-fed meats do so with farmers they trust. However, as more people start to buy grass-fed products the USDA will want to regulate the market and the battle for what grass-fed means and represents will begin. A lot of farmers are not too happy about this. In my interview with Tom Warren of Stone and Thistle Farm he expressed reservations about standardized practices: “Unfortunately the USDA will have to implement practice standards for use of the term grass fed. This will probably turn out as badly as the NOP (National Organic Program). “  I agree with Tom, my hope is that this movement can stay true, but I also feel that if grass-fed farming becomes more popular we all benefit. What are your feelings on this?  Do you think that grass-fed should be defined? And how?

I really debated about what recipe I should use to showcase the cuisine of the Great Plains, there are so many different cultures to choose from: Scandinavian, Czech and Russian not to mention native American cultures. The more research I did, it became clear that a goulash was the perfect dish, so quintessentially American it is the basis for  hamburger helper. The great plains where settled by industrious, hard working immigrants who produced wheat and grains, soon becoming known as “America’s bread basket.”  There was a vibrant Czech community in Nebraska that was known for its fine bread and baked goods. This Czech Goulash can be served with macaroni but a fresh homemade Spätzle would be superb with this delicious spicy stew!

Ingredients:

Olive oil to cover the pot
3 tablespoons flour
1-3 pound La Cense Pot Poast, cut into one inch cubes
2 medium onions, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons of Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
4 cups beef broth
1 (28 oz.) can tomatoes, crushed by hand
2 bay leaves
2 green peppers, roughly chopped
Salt to taste

Preparation: Cut pot roast into cubes, removing most of the fat, dredge in flour. Heat the oil in a heavy bottom saucepan or casserole. Brown for about 6 minutes. Add the onions and garlic, saute onions until translucent, stirring occasionally then add paprika and marjoram, stir. Add the tomatoes and broth, bring to boil then reduce the heat and cook for an hour at a low heat.  Meat should be tender in about one hour, add the green pepper and cook for another 15 minutes.  Serve Goulash on a bed of buttered egg noodles. Enjoy!

World's Columbian Exposition: Chicago, United States, 1893

Thoughts from Ulla:

The Midwest is possibly the most fertile place on earth. Glacial deposits blessed the Midwest and particularly Iowa with prodigious amounts of highly productive top soil. Our ascendancy to becoming THE world power can be traced to the productive agricultural might of the Midwest, and the freedom it gave us to industrialize and no other town has been impacted more by the riches of our agricultural bounty than Chicago. Chicago was the center for commodity trading and the financial center of the Midwest where cattle and hogs were brought and fattened and slaughtered in an unprecedented factory-like manner. The Union Stock Yard & Transit Co., or The Yards processed more meat then any other place in the world from the Civil War until the 1920s reaching its peak in 1924. Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” chronicled the slaughterhouses to the horror of a newly industrialized America, in many ways Michael Pollen’s the Omnivores Dilemma has done the same for this generation; bringing the horrors of our modern day feedlots to the homes of suburban America. Our beef production is now controlled by four large packers who exercise control over the whole process of bringing beef to our plate, this was true back in our gilded age and policy makers where able to wrestle control back to help protect workers and customers. Sinclair’s book changed America he intended to shed light on industrial labor and working conditions, but food safety became a national obsession. Sinclair talked of workers falling into rendering tanks and being ground into "Durham's Pure Leaf Lard". Americans where aghast, coupled with the high death rate of slaughterhouse workers and the exploitation of children and women and the fact that foreign sales of American meat fell by one-half impelled governmental action. Does this sound familiar? Koreans refusing our beef, immigrant children being used in meat packing plants and Americans becoming obese on unhealthy fat? This is true today and I think we have a unique opportunity to take the power back from the consolidation that has happened, we did it back then, why not now?


Notes from Franny on the Union Stockyards:

The Union Yards were established in a purchase of 320 acres of swamp land in 1864 by 9 railroad companies that saw a great opportunity in a consolidated railway shipping center taking the bounty of the west to the east. Originally, live cattle were shipped from the Stockyards east to local markets and local slaughterhouses where cattle production was waning. Pigs, on the other hand, were slaughtered at the Stockyards from the beginning; their meat was shipped salted, smoked, and cured.  In the early 1880’s, the entire cattle industry changed when an engineer friend of the Swift company invented the refridgerated railway car. This was the key to creating the 1st vertically integrated business where could be bought live (on the hoof), slaughtered, and shipped to butchers in local markets. The Armour Company and the Swift Company were among the largest holders of this vertically integrated businesses centered at the Union Stockyards and their hold across the many stages of production and distribution gave birth to the still present tension between small processor and large processor, producer and packer, and nameless slaughterhouse worker and corporate giant.

People noted that the Stockyards were in the truest sense a human machine.  They employed human labor to disassemble the animal parts.  At the time, machines were not capable of dealing with such raw and non-uniform materials as animals, so humans became the working pieces of the machine, setting an example for the marvelous organization of machines to come, machines that would propel American Industry to it’s height of might.  With 2,000 workers and roughly 38,000 animals killed per day, the development of organizational efficiency was key in creating a sustained center of processing that would feed the growing and hardworking American populace. The division of labor saw it’s day in Chicago at the Stockyards at  the turn of the century, and this division of labor model has since trickled into factory systems across the world. 

Although it was called the Union Stockyards, any attempt at starting unions were oppressed by the big operators. There were two Unionizing attempts, one of which was lost in a strike.  It wasn’t until Congress passed the Wagner Act in 1935, which encouraged collective bargaining, that a union was formed by workers at the Union Stockyards.

The stockyards did, however, offer employment to millions of immigrants over the years who dreamed the American dream. Chicago was a marvel as it grew more than any other city in the World in one generation, and this, as Ulla stated earlier was given to it’s place as an agricultural trading center sitting at the crossroads of a country’s farmland and newly industrialized cities.

Mark's grass-fed farm in the Ozarks.

We met Grass-fed Party member Mark Hudson in September at a Cowcus in New York. Mark had come all the way from Arkansas for the Cowcus! We found out that Mark was in the process of starting a small grass-fed farm in Southwest Missouri, the heart of Ozark country. The land he currently owns was settled by his great-grandparents in the 1860’s when his grandfather drove cattle over from Georgia and Tennessee to the Ozarks and met his wife, a woman of the cattle owning Caddo tribe. They established a farm together, which stayed in Mark’s family until the 1950’s. Mark, who grew up on an adjacent farm, recently bought part of the old family farm, which had changed hands in the 50s.

Tell me a little bit about the farm you grew up on. Did your family raise grass-fed cows?

 Our cattle were on grass; however, the majority of the calves were weaned and sold as feeder cattle. This is on land my father purchased in the 1960’s. Until the early 1970’s most of these light calves went to the wheat pastures in Kansas for finishing. Typically, during the 30 days prior to slaughter, grain was provided. As a kid we ate grass-fed beef from our own cows. I remember wishing we could eat the plastic wrapped supermarket beef, but I’ve since realized how much better I had it.

When my ancestors came to this area in the 1860’s they brought cows. Their calves were weaned and tuned to grass. They also grazed the mountainsides for acorns to supplement their diet. Old folks around here say, “A good acorn meant fat cattle in the spring.”

After 1 to 2 years, the fat cattle were driven to market. My Grandfather drove cattle to markets in Kansas City on horseback. They were all grass-fed. At first to Kansas City and later to the railroad in Crane, Mo. They were truly grass-fed for over 100 years.

As a kid did you see yourself owning your own farm one day?

 Yes. I always planned to continue and expand the farming operation. FFA and 4-H were a significant part of childhood on the farm.

Have you been able to do that?

While working as a grain inspector I established a farrow-to-finish hog operation. I grew grain, mixed feed, farrowed pigs and finished to 245 lbs. With high input costs and low returns, the operation was not sustainable.

Three years ago land next to our family farm came up for sale. This land was part of my great grandfather’s place. I purchased this acreage and am in the process of reclaiming pastures and installing improvements.

I spent a few years looking for a bank that would give me a loan to buy the cattle. Because grass-fed cattle need more time to grow, I wouldn’t be able to make a payment for at least 2 years. I finally found a local banker who knows me and helped me buy the cattle. It took a few years of looking.

I am establishing all pasture without chemicals and using the most environmentally sensitive practices. The USDA Conservation Service is very helpful in this area. I recently gained funding through the federal EQIP program. It basically helps pay for wells and fencing to keep cattle out of natural springs and to put native grasses back on the land. I have until November 2009 to finish my improvements.

What is ecologically distinctive about your part of the country?

 One distinction is in the Ozarks we have some of the highest carrying capacity per cattle per acre, given to the grasses, soil, and climate. We get about 2 snows per year. Grass is growing all year round. My cows will graze native warm weather grasses in the winter and cool weather grasses such as clover fescue in the summer. We also have hardy cattle for four seasons grazing.

What kind of cows are you raising?

I’m raising Charolais and I just bought a new herd of Black Angus Heifers from a local farmer, so I know their history well. I know what they’ve been eating. They’re bred so they’ll be calving in February.

What are the biggest issues in your region?

 The biggest issue is the market for the live grass-finished cattle. Where can I take a live grass-fed cow and sell it? We can’t process meat and sell it to anyone without a USDA certified facility processing it, and most of those are own by the big 3 packers. I couldn’t just bring in 30 cows. I consider myself a wholesale producer meat on the hoof. We never had control, before the packers, it was the government – they bought and processed the cows.

If the USDA would ease up, I could produce any grass-fed beef cheaper or for as much as a feedlot. If we truly had a Grass-fed America, I could take my calf to a sell barn that would have a way to process it or pack it as a grass-fed product without shipping it to a feedlot. The 2 sell barns within a 50 mile radius of my place run about 5,000 to 6,000 calves per week.

I was trying to find out what to do with my cattle that will be ready in 2010. I have friends who own restaurants, but because I don’t have a USDA processing facility to process them, legally I’d have to sell them as live cows to the restaurants owners, who would be in charge of processing them. I’m committed to it though. I’m raising them. I’m raising grass-fed cows and what I do with them I’ll have to figure that out when the time comes.

I’m very excited about our new administration. Our cheep food policy in the US has had many benefits but it has created the subsidized corn/feedlot/agri-busness we have today. It is imperative that we revisit our food policy as build new energy and economic policies.

Race King is the hard-working ranch manager at the La Cense Ranch.  When I talked to him today, he had just come in from getting more straw bales out to the cows for shelter from the wind.  He said that it had been below zero last weekend, getting down to 30 below at night, and they were preparing the best windbreaks and strawbale shelter for the cows and calves in the lowlands.   In this interview, Race talks about the La Cense Ranch, the value of rotational grazing, how grass-fed practices preserve the heritage of ranching, and the quality of character found in the ranching community.

What makes the La Cense Ranch unique?

I think it’s a combination of many things that make us unique.  It’s the landscape, the size of our operation, the managed intensive grazing, the high quality forages found in our area, the low-stress animal handling, the natural resources available for the wildlife that provide a natural well-balanced system, the Angus genetics, the time honored ranching practices we utilize.  One of the big things we have is the strong commitment from the people here at the ranch, from the management to the people out doing the every day things.  We have an operation where we can raise the animals, and package them and send them on, and that’s very unique.

How is grazing necessary to maintaining a healthy ecosystem on the La Cense Ranch?

Well first of all, we’ve been able to use managed rotational grazing to increase plant health and plant density while increasing grass production on the ranch and additionally have a positive impact on the creeks and streams.  It’s just not realistic to not rotational graze.  It’s totally necessary.  Otherwise we’d have rampant wildfires.  Grazing needs to be managed and we do that by allowing rest periods between grazing.  We believe grazing is important for the overall health of the landscape.  If we can ensure a good quality pasture to where it stays healthy, we will also help the wildlife as they pass though.  They’ll have good quality forage, with our warm and cools season grasses.  With the managed grazing, we’re also able to put more pressure on noxious weeds.

How did you know you wanted to go into the ranching profession?  Did you grow-up on a ranch?

I did.  I grew up on a family farm and ranch operation.  From a very early age I knew that my passion lied in ranching.  I liked working with livestock.  I admire the strong moral character and work ethic of ranching.  I enjoy it, and it allows me to raise my family in the midst of that, and it’s something they can share as well.

What barriers may prevent other Montana ranchers from being able to produce or sell grass-fed beef?

I think the biggest thing is the marketing side of it.  I think many of the ranchers in the state could produce the product.  The costs are a little higher, but we could get more out of it.  As the market grows I think there will be more who could step up and produce it.

When we talked recently, you said the La Cense Ranch is “preserving the heritage of ranching.”   What wealth lies in the heritage of ranching?

Well it’s part of our lifestyle.  My family has been involved in agriculture as have a lot of us in this country.  When you step back and look at how to do things in a more sustainable manner, and then you do research on the history, you’ll find out you’re doing it a lot like they did fifty, or a hundred years ago.  We’re focusing more on the range and the pasture.  We really have become grass-farmers, if you will.  If you look back, they had a little bit of hay put up for feed in the winter and that was all.  I think this is how we’ll be able to preserve the heritage.  It’s allowed us to come back to the roots of ranching.

There have been technological developments that have allowed us to blend old and new and come up with a sustainable concept.  And with that, we’re able to lower costs, we have less inputs, and we can increase animal health and performance.  There have been some good technologies to build on the roots of our heritage.  I think the bottom line is that ranchers and farmers in this country are good people; we care about our animals and the quality of our products.  As we produce more of these sustainably raised products, people will be board and more family farmers will be able to switch over to sustainable production.   People will have to pay a little more to get this, but for now we’re satisfied to reach a few folks who share our philosophy.

What do ranchers bring to a community?

Well first of all, ethics, values, they’re just strong people.  If you live in a small town it’s nice to have the scenery, but it’s the people around us who affect who we are.  It really takes a whole community to raise a child and the kids who come out of these communities do a great job wherever they go.  There’s a strong work ethic they come out with. 

 The number one industry in Dillon and Montana is still agriculture.  Not only is it the heart of the economy, but it's also socially who we are.  I guess you’d say it’s the backbone.  I don’t want to see us getting to the point where all our food is imported.  I know the people who are making our food and I think that it’s important to keep that industry here in America.

La Cense Ranch cowboys and kids at the recent Ranch Christmas Party, photo by Armelle Buvron